This invention relates to techniques for the coordination of multiple travel itineraries for multiple travelers who are departing from various origin locations and traveling to the same destination location. According to one advantageous aspect, the invention provides techniques for minimizing the amount of time between the arrival times associated with the outbound itineraries and the departing times associated with the inbound itineraries, such that the travelers arrive at and depart from the destination at as close to the same time as possible.
In many types of business and personal travel, multiple travelers are expected to arrive at the same destination to participate in the same or similar activity. Frequently, the multiple travelers must originate their travel from different origin locations. For instance, a manager of a business with employees located in more than one city, state or country may call a meeting that requires all employees of the business to gather at a certain location and time. Furthermore, a family reunion may be planned, which requires the family members, many of whom do not live in the same place, to gather at a certain location and time. Thus, many of the employees and family members must travel to the certain location prior to the time of the meeting or reunion, respectively. For the travelers that do not drive themselves, such as those that arrive at the destination via a plane, train or other mode of mass transportation, it would generally be advantageous for them to arrive at the destination around the same time so that they can more easily share the other travel expenses, such as lodging arrangements, transportation to the lodging, transportation to the activity, etc. As such, two or more of the travelers may desire to coordinate their travel itineraries so that they arrive at the destination at as close to the same time as possible. In the same way, the travelers may also desire to coordinate their travel itineraries so that they depart the destination at as close to the same time as possible so that they may share transportation expenses to an airport, train station, or other departing location, or for any other reason.
Coordinating travel arrangements for two or more travelers can be a daunting task, however, and the more travelers, the more complicated an endeavor to coordinate travel arrangements is. Typically, if more than one traveler from different origin locations would like to arrive at and/or leave a destination location at approximately the same time, someone must personally evaluate all of the possible travel arrangements (itineraries) for each traveler and determine which itinerary for each traveler will permit the travelers to arrive at and/or leave the destination as close as possible to the same time. Simultaneously, the person evaluating all of the possible travel itineraries for each traveler must keep in mind the date and time of any activity or activities that any or all of the travelers must attend.
For example, in the past, a travel organizer, such as a travel agent or other individual who may or may not be a traveler themselves, would have to access a central reservation system for the desired type of transportation and perform separate searches to obtain the various travel itineraries for traveling to a certain destination from each traveler's origin location that met the overall travel criteria, such as the date for the travel. Once the travel organizer obtains the various travel itineraries for each traveler, the travel organizer must then manually evaluate the itineraries in light of the desires of the travelers. For example, if the travelers and/or organizer specify that the travelers should arrive at and/or depart from the destination at as close to the same time as possible, regardless of the cost, then the travel organizer must determine which itineraries meet the specific scheduling requirements only. If, however, the travelers and/or organizer specify that the travelers should arrive at and/or depart from the destination at as close to the same time as possible without exceeding a certain price for one or more of the itineraries or a certain overall price for all of the itineraries, then the organizer must not only evaluate the itineraries in light of the schedule requirements, but also must consider the pricing of one or more of the itineraries. As such, as the number of travelers and/or the number of itineraries that the travel organizer must evaluate increases, the more confusing for the organizer and the more risk that the organizer will make an error or overlook a viable travel option for one or more of the travelers. Furthermore, if one or more of the travelers desires to make changes to their respective itineraries, the organizer must manually gather and identify all of the viable travel options to present to the respective traveler based upon the schedule and/or price requirements. Then, if a change is made to one traveler's itinerary, the organizer must determine how that affects the other travelers' waiting times once they arrive at the destination and/or the prices of the travel. Manually coordinating travel itineraries for multiple travelers who are traveling from different origin locations to one destination location, therefore, is a very time-consuming and error-prone process.
Thus, there is a need for automated techniques to coordinate the travel itineraries of multiple travelers arriving at and leaving from one destination location, but originating travel from multiple origin locations. In particular, there is a need for automated techniques that are capable of coordinating the travel itineraries of multiple travelers based upon specified requirements regarding schedule and/or pricing, including permitting changes to individual travel itineraries, in an efficient and accurate manner.